The Beatles – All These Years
Volume 1: Tune In
When I heard that Mark Lewisohn was writing a book about The
Beatles, I was immediately keen to know the details. Since the band split there
have been dozens of attempts to describe just what happened between 1962 and
1970, and all have been disappointing. Different authors, journalists and
historians have encountered unwillingness on the part of the participants, lack
of access to information, or have just been sloppy with the facts. There is a
whole industry in Beatles Myths that people are happy to recycle, few of which
are based in fact.
What Lewisohn has done is to return to as many original
documents and eyewitnesses as possible, and he has not been scared to be as
comprehensive as he can be. The resulting book is volume one of a proposed
three-volume opus, and tells the story only as far as 31st December
1962. It is eight hundred and forty pages long, not including footnotes and
references.
It is a startling work of scholarship.
It is also timely, as fifty years and more have now passed
since the events he is describing. For all of my childhood I thought of The
Beatles as a band that had only recently split, and it is quite a shock to
actually do the mental arithmetic and to realise that it is now a long time
ago. Part of this deception is reinforced by the Just For Men still used by
some ex-Beatles. The surviving Beatles and the widows of the others are now old
people, and their story needs to be told. It seems unlikely that McCartney or
Starr will now spend the time doing it themselves. McCartney, I think, is happy
to have some episodes of his long career remain ambiguous. Ringo probably isn’t
bothered. The time is right for Mark Lewisohn to step up and fill in the gaps.
If he lives long enough to complete his magnum opus, I think that in future
years it will become known as definitive.
The story of The Beatles does not begin in 1962 when Ringo
joined the band. It does not even begin with the meeting of John and Paul at
Woolton Village Fair, or the birth of the oldest Beatle (Ringo) on 7th
July 1940. Lewisohn begins his framing of the events in 1829, with the birth of
James Lennon somewhere in Ireland,
probably in County
Down.
There is a whole chapter of careful explanation as to how the
families of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Starr and Best arrived in Liverpool.
This may seem like overkill, but there is a reason for
taking the long view. It emerges that three of The Beatles (Ringo being the
exception) have deep roots in Ireland,
and proposes that their links to the spirit of their home city run very deeply
indeed. As a port it is a well-spun theory that much of the wit and wisdom of
Liverpool is the result of the great mix of immigrants, especially from Scotland and Ireland, and this is thoroughly
un-picked by Lewisohn. He considers the old theories and searches for evidence
to support them. He even makes reference to the cultural heritage of all the
early Beatles, and assesses if common history had a role to play in uniting
them (and excluding Pete Best) so conclusively. Where he finds no evidence to
support the old ideas, he is not scared to say so.
The emergence of The Beatles as a world-changing cultural
phenomenon is linked to two cities. Lewisohn is precise and careful in his
description of the events of the five tours of duty to Hamburg. He has done his research well and
understands what a place Hamburg
must have been in 1961. He does not shrink from the seedier aspects of the time
that the young men spent there. A theory central to the Hamburg story is that the massive amount of
stage time accumulated was a major part in the subsequent success. Lewisohn is
mathematical in his approach and the number-crunching seems to bear out his
ideas.
As well as volume one being the story of Lennon, McCartney
and Harrison; there is great emphasis on Pete Best, Stuart Sutcliffe and Brian
Epstein. If there is a criticism of Lewisohn’s writing it is that the tragedy
of Sutcliffe’s life is explored in a scientific way. There is space and a need
to consider in more depth the emotional fall-out that his passing caused among
his young friends. For the most part he tells the story of these three men with
care and attention to all sides. By presenting all the facts, if somewhat
dispassionately, he gives the reader the opportunity to decide who was really
to blame in the turbulence from which John, Paul George and Ringo neatly
emerged.
So volume one is all about back-story, and it is quite a
story. It may be too long for most readers – even some ardent fans of The Boys
may wilt under the sheer size of this work – but it is necessary, fascinating
and vital. John invited Paul, who invited George, who after a long time then
invited Ringo. The eight hundred and forty pages that describe these simple
links in a chain are quite an event in music and biography.
My mouth is watering for volume two. Lewisohn proposes that
it will include the years 1963 until 1966 or 67. I cannot wait.
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